The present invention relates to a connector for a flat multiconductor cable, and particularly to an improved cover for a connector of the type having terminals which are individually latched to the cover.
A known connector sold by AMP Incorporated as its AMP-LATCH connector comprises a housing, a plurality of stamped and formed terminals therein, and a cover. The housing has a mating face and an opposed cable receiving face, the terminals having substantially planar slotted plate portions extending above the cable receiving face. Each slotted plate portion comprises a pair of insulation piercing arms defining a slot therebetween and a pair of outwardly directed barbs toward the free ends of respective arms. The cover has a terminal receiving face, an opposed outer face, and passages therethrough aligned to accept the arms of respective slotted plate portions. Each passage has opposed internal sidewalls facing the rolled surfaces of the terminal and opposed internal endwalls facing the sheared surfaces of the terminal. Each endwall has thereon a shoulder on which a sheared surface of a respective barb is seated to retain the cover when a cable is terminated.
The above described connector is generally disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,820,055, although the current product differs slightly in details such as the profile of the passages through the cover. To terminate a cable, which is profiled as individual conductors on 0.050 in. centers in a common jacket of insulation, the cable is aligned with complementary fluting on the terminal receiving face of the cover and the cover is aligned with the housing and pressed thereagainst so that each pair of arms pierces the cable and a conductor is forced into the slot defined thereby. Arms are initially deflected toward each other, narrowing the slot, then return as barbs latch onto the shoulders. This results in a loss of resilient force and reduction of contact integrity between the deformed conductor, typically a single strand of copper wire, and the terminal.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,410,229 discloses a modified form of the above connector employing terminals having laterally formed ears and shoulders on a sidewall of each passage. Both arms of each pair are thus deflected normally of the plane of the slotted plate portion during termination, eliminating any narrowing and subsequent widening of the slot. The disclosed connector suffers the disadvantage of requiring the manufacture of both a new terminal and a new cover; it would be desirable to attain the advantage through the mere expedient of manufacturing a modified cover.